[img]
http://www.accuratereloading.com/hipl.jpg[/img]

THE PAY LINE

"The definition of the pay line is: An imaginary line drawn through the body mass of the animal, bisecting it in half on the parallel.

Why do I call it the pay line? Well, it is like this. If the bullet is placed above the pay line, the animal "ramps the horizon" probably never to be seen again in mosr cases, and you, the client, pay the lost or wounded price. SEE I TOLD YOU SO!

The vertical line indicates the maximum distance you can place your shot towards the rear of the kill zone. Obviously animals facuing away diagonally have a dirrenet point at which to aim"

The above is quoted from the book IN THE SALT, by the well know African PH Lou Hallamore.

What do you think of his reasoning?

------------------
saeed@ emirates.net.ae

www.accuratereloading.com

[This message has been edited by Saeed (edited 09-23-2001).]

Interesting how low the spine is through the neck region. And how well the brain is protected! I wonder if that is where Remington got its three rings of steel idea?

Mike

Mike,

Any decent bullet would penetrate the horns on a buffalo.

------------------
saeed@ emirates.net.ae

www.accuratereloading.com

Saeed
I figured it would i was just speculating!

Does that book show similar pictures of Lion, elephant, and Rhino? I would love to see their inner workings if you don't mind posting them.

Thanks,
Mike

------------------
Victory through superior firepower!

Saeed:

That is why one should always shoot for the shoulder in a braodside shot. I would rather see a full size xray then depend on Doctori's assumptions.

Xray's could be a good project for you. I'm surprised no one has never done this on the big five.

Will

I haven't read this book by Hallamore but I have read his book on Leopard hunting... Bottom line is that although I don't doubt he knows his stuff, I dislike his style of writing...IMHO he tends to sensationalize pretty basic stuff and this is a case in point. Most hunters are taught as a rule of thumb to follow the front leg up and place the bullet a 1/3 to a 1/2 way up the body...I find that a far better description of what is required than Hallamore's "pay" lines.....

Too complicated. I prefer Aagaard's advice to just visualize a grapefruit hanging between the front shoulders, and pop it!

There may be some ommissions about his statements. Don't shoot ABOVE the line or the animal will go over the horizon? Not quite.

I'll bet a bunch that you shot, and shoot, your buffalo above that line. A high shoulder shot will drop everything except the elephant in it's tracks providing an adequate rifle is used.

Kendall

I find it curious that this line is illustrated on some of the animals with the front leg in something other than straight up and down, it sort of defeats the purpose of having a rule of thumb if you need to modify the visualizations for different animals.

Never having shot any African animals, I do like the technique of aiming to break the offside shoulder if it is an angling shot.

Thanks Saeed!!

Mike

------------------
Victory through superior firepower!

For me it is useles compared to our proven rules as cited above. I don�t understand the lines on the croc, the only shot for sure is a neck/brain shot if the croc is lying on a bank next to the water. With a heart shot it will jump into the water and is mostly lost.

------------------

Thanks Saeed,

This is exactly the kind of stuff I look forward to from this site. Great information. Now I have to go explain to my wife why she walked in and saw me pointing my rifle at the screen!

Hey, the spine is drawn way too low on the leopard. It should be more like the lion drawing.

Saeed,
I don't believe I want to hunt with Hallamore, anymore....he could get me killed.

------------------
Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com

Ray,

The problem is not just with Hallamore, its with all those who make sweeping statements about one thing and another.

I posted these drawing here to get an impression of what you all think.

He also has a couple of pictures of the "right" way and the "wrong" way of using a shooting stick.

Funny enough, I just realized that I have been using the shooting sticks the "wrong" way, and still managed to bag 100s of game animals.

Years ago when I was in Houston, I used to shoot trap. In our gun club, the Greater Houston Gun Club, they used to get a visit from a gentleman from Holland & Holland in England.

He came over to give some very expensive shooting lessons once a year.

I was shooting on the trap field, when this gentleman came over with our club manager, Bill Poole.

I use my middle finger to pull the trigger, and I stand almost sideways to the target to shoot, as I find easier that way.

Bill asked this gentleman if he might recommend something to improve my shooting.

His answer was that although I was shooting reasonably well, I would never be a good trap shooter, as I was doing too many things fundemantaly wrong.

I think the next day we had a 500 bird marathon. We gathered 5 AA class shooters in our squad and started our marathon.

I think 4 of us were down at least 1 bird after the first 50 targets. I was down 2.

Jim Gilmore, who was the Texas State Trap Champion at the time, was saying it was going to be a "very long" day!

I told him why don't we just get our heads down, forget about the ones we missed so far, and break all 450 target that we have to shoot.

We finished our marathon, which I won with 498.

I wonder what the gentleman from H&H said after that.

------------------
saeed@ emirates.net.ae

www.accuratereloading.com

Saeed,

Come on now tell the truth. You gave that middle finger a good work out so you could wave goodbye to him with it. You know the good old American middle finger wave don't you??

thanks SAEED

martin

Gentlemen,

I have posted all the animals with the payline on them on a page on our hunting section, so you can refer to it whenever you wish

www.accuratereloading.com/payline.html

------------------
saeed@ emirates.net.ae

www.accuratereloading.com